He's doing it!!!
 

My 7-year old hasn't had the best of luck with his schooling. In Kindergarten he had 5 teachers throughout the year as his original teacher broke her leg and hip on the second day of school knocking her out until the last month of school. Because of having so many substitute teachers, who were never trained in teaching/testing phonics, they didn't teach it to the students and only focused on math, which is my son's strongest subject.

Fast forward to 1st grade. New school at a new duty station, new teacher, in a class full of problematic children where my son was often allowed to watch youtube videos during school while the teacher helped the problematic students. In January he was placed in a new class, with a new teacher. She quickly discovered he wasn't on track with his reading/writing/spelling. I met with his teacher in February and she suspected a learning disorder, one that does run in the family which she didn't know until that parent meeting.

Then the virus hit, school closed, and digital learning happened. He wasn't able to get tested and would either have to repeat 1st grade if he couldn't close the gap of learning during this time, or get additional help in 2nd grade, if he did close that gap. They plan on testing him the first week of school to figure out what to do with him regarding a grade.

Knowing this, we leveled with him, telling him that we were going to work real hard throughout the rest of the year and in to the summer to make sure he went in to 2nd grade in the fall. I bought language, letters, reading and writing curriculum from ABeka, which is what I used to teach my daughters to read when I homeschooled them. We have been diligently working through the curriculum these past 8 weeks, working on his handwriting, his spelling, and his reading! It's been A LOT of work, some tears, but in the last few days, he's really started understanding phonics and reading!! While he still is sounding things out, he's able to read easier and with little help from us! I'm so proud of the work he's put in to his learning so that he hopefully doesn't have to repeat 1st grade!! He may still need additional help in 2nd, especially when they test him in the new school year, but I am confident they won't be holding him back now that he's closed this huge gap of learning.

This weekend I wanted to document him learning to read and the work he's put in these past few weeks. I couldn't find a beginner reader kit in the store, but I had remembered Kristin had a kit, Bibliophile. I figured I'd use to scrap his learning to read.
https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/s...preview-01.jpg

When I searched the store for that kit, guess what else showed up??
An addon to her Bibliophile for learning to read!!!

https://www.sweetshoppedesigns.com/s...ad-preview.jpg

I purchased both of them, to be able to use them to their fullest and continue to document my son's reading, especially as he improves and becomes more confident with his reading. This week I scrapped this layout of him reading out of his Victory Drill book - - does anyone remember them as a child or when your kiddos were little?

https://i.imgur.com/LNjz20p.jpg
**this layout uses a template, coming to the store tomorrow, from Cindy**

I'm so proud of this kiddo and I'm so excited that Kristin was thoughtful enough to create a beginning reader kit with her Bibliophile kit so that I could document this long road this boy has been on for almost two years! I also just had to brag on my kiddo because I know school is hard for him and he is often in the shadows on my layouts as he hates having his photo taken :wub:

this is awesome!!!!!!!!!

this is everything wendy!!! I love everything about this - the post and the meaning behind it and the layout!

I love this! Great job, Mama!

This is awesome! Way to go William! And Mama for helping him get there!

That is so awesome that you both persevered and are seeing success! Congrats!

I loved reading your post. :wub:
I'm so happy for him that he's picking up on the art of reading! And that he won't be held back.
Love your layout and love those kits.

So great!!

I'm so glad he's getting it! You've put a lot of work into it. That layout is awesome, too.

That's so exciting! Way to go to you both! What perseverance he must have - and way to keep him working hard.

Oh my gosh, that is sooo awesome!!!

how absolutely amazing, and inspiring. what a great mom you are, and your son is a super champ. so happy this is working for you both.
gorgeous layouts, super kits to use.. you go girl!!

Way to go William, and good on you mama for working with him to catch him up. Love that you found the perfect kits to scrap it all with too.

Wonderful!!

Well done to you and your boy for all your efforts and congrats on the achievement! Woot woot!
Gorgeous layout there, Wendy, with perfect kit and template! :wub:

That's so great, Wendy, and I love how you scrapped the moment!

Thanks guys. I'm really proud of him. Today was his unofficial last day of Digital Learning. There's no more mandatory online lessons or classroom meets. Everything is optional between now and the official last day (May 21). So tomorrow starts our shortened day of just the curriculum that I bought for him to learn to read/write/spell and if we keep up at this pace, we should be done those books by the last week of May!! Then it's just daily reading all throughout summer.

He's been such a trooper, reading to my mom, the girls and even the pets!! I love hearing him read. He says he hates reading, but he's doing SO well!!

Tomorrow I'll have him read all of your comments to keep that encouragement up for him! :wub:

Congratulations Wendy.
And a huge congratulations to your boy!
That's a big accomplishment. :wub:
He can be very proud of himself! :wub:

Honestly, I had a terrible day today, worst day that I can think of since this whole pandemic started, so stressful, and needed to hear something that was just really good. This helped! This is awesome. Good for him!

That is so exciting! Props to you for figuring out what he needed and persevering with him!

Woot! Way to go! I'm glad all that hard work it paying off.

Congrats to you both on this huge milestone! I remember when my youngest learned how to read. She would insist on reading books by herself so I missed reading to her before bed. Love the layout too.

He says he hates reading but that's because it's still work for him. Once it gets easier he might really enjoy reading comic books or small chapter books by himself.

I remember when I first started knowing how to read I had to read EVERY word I could come across. Especially the milk carton sitting on the table every morning :D it would drive me a bit nuts. I still remember it to this day. "lait UHT demi-écrémé UHT 1 litre" haha that's crazy. I guess repetition is key!

That's such good news! You and he are both awesome and working so hard at this!

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So glad you’re seeing progress! Congratulations to both of you! As a (former!) homeschooling mom of a kiddo with learning disabilities I know how much extra effort it takes on your part, too.


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How wonderful that he has had such improvements with his hard work.

That is so awesome!!! Way to go!!!

We got him a couple comic books for his birthday because that's all he has been "reading" the past year or so. When he opened them for his birthday he was like "oh . . . . ." I knew he was disappointed, but we've read him the first comic book and now he's slowly working his way through the second comic book! He'll ask us what this word is or say he doesn't know what's going on in the page, but even reading comic books can be difficult. The best is when he'll come get us, after playing in his room, carrying a book saying he knows what this word means/is saying! I love that he is determined to be as "smart" as his sisters and that he is actually trying really hard!

This is such a huge victory for William!! Despite the stress that these months of online learning have brought, I think that having you work with him has been a blessing. The boost to his self esteem is priceless.
Way to go, William!! [emoji322] And way to go, Mama!! [emoji322]

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Big congratulations to him and you mom for fighting the good fight. Such a wonderful accomplishment. The layout is fabulous.

So awesome!

That is amazing !! Great job ♥